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Tony Carrillo
F Minus Creator

Just a few years ago, Tony Carrillo, 26, was working on his fine arts degree at Arizona State University while earning extra cash drawing a cartoon strip for the college newspaper. Today that cartoon, F Minus, is nationally syndicated and runs in 125 newspapers across the country, including the New York Daily News and the Boston Globe.

Carrillo’s cartooning career took off in 2004 when he won a MTV-sponsored contest and landed a development deal with the comic syndication company Universal Features Syndicate.

His comic quickly gained a huge following for its off-beat and irreverent humor, similar in style to Gary Larson’s Farside or the New Yorker’s one-panel cartoons.

This month, Carrillo invited the Open Door Policy crew into the spare bedroom of his modest Tempe apartment, where F Minus is created.

Although Carrillo has become somewhat of a local celebrity, he hasn’t let the success go to his head.

“I think just the knowledge that I really don’t deserve to be here keeps me grounded,” he says. “I feel like I really got lucky.”

If you’d like to check out F Minus, the cartoon debuts this month in our new comics page of this edition.

By Shanna Hogan

1. Copy of The Times.
2. Joker comic villain framed poster. “I really wasn’t into comics much until I got my own comic, then I really started admiring other people’s work.”
3. Carrillo plays guitar.
4. Laptop and graphics tablet on which Carrillo draws his comics. “To draw it can take anywhere from one hour to three hours depending on how much detail there is.”
5. Carrillo’s book, a complete collection of F Minus cartoons from 2007.
6. A plastic skeleton wearing a wig and a pair of Elvis Presley-style sunglasses. “When I was in college I did a lot of figure drawing… and having a skeleton is one of the basic things you want to have if you’re doing figure drawing because everything is really based around the skeleton. I really think that helped me a lot when it came to the cartoon.”
7. Plastic models used for figure drawing..

8. Gumby and Pokey dolls. “I collect a lot of toys. I like keeping weird, funky stuff all around because it helps me think creatively.”
9. Plastic skull. “I took several forensic art classes. I need one more class to be certified as a police sketch artist. I really want to do that too. That’s another reason I keep the skull.”
10. A map Carrillo marks with pins to keep track of areas where F Minus is circulated. “The whole Midwest just doesn’t get it. On the East Coast there are quite a few. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is probably my most popular paper. I don’t know why; there are just so many people who love it there.”
11. An example of Carrillo’s figure drawings. 12. Astronomy calendar. “I took astronomy in college, and I just loved it. If art wasn’t what I was set on, I could see going into astronomy or science.”